Divine Punishment/Guide

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Analysis

Q. Is it worth making a "pure"/high MIND Striker Unit?

A. Yes, sort of. It can be, if:

1. You have a second POW/DEX mag for other uses;
2. You are exclusively using Striker Unit for Divine Punishment;
3. And you value the amount of attacks you conserve via maximizing its output at lower levels (it can reduce required hits to kill by around 25%; from 8 attacks down to 6 in an example below).

OR

• You have specific solo hunts planned that you intend to purely DP through for a long time.

HOWEVER, if Striker Unit is your only mag, probably make it RAmarl's suggested mag stats on her guide page (5/149/46/0). This lets you access all of the important weaponry on any Ranger and deal physical damage at reasonably low levels, allows for "minimum" (it's not too far from maximum) effectiveness DP damage output, and also allows a level 200 RAmarl with Min-Max build to have fully maximized DP damage output while maintaining max ATP and ATA, and 2 free unit slots.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• High DP output for sub-Ultimate difficulties and Heaven Striker equippable as early as level 14 (4x Heavenly/Arms units).
• High DP output for sub-Ultimate difficulties with Heavenly/Battle attack speed at level 42.
• High DP output (only -141 MST from RAmarl's cap) and Heavenly/Battle attack speed at level 80.
• Max DP output as early as level 105.

Note: Levels assume 5/7/34/154 mag listed below, Heavenly units, and completed Important Stats Only materials used (0 Mind Materials).

Cons

• Low ATP and ATA throughout leveling; physical damage and your ability to use other weapons will be very weak until very high levels.
• A lot of MST is wasted as overcapped points at very high levels.

Neutral

• Demon's weapons are still effective. Slicer of Fanatic ATP requirement (570 ATP) already barely achieved at level 80.
• Handgun animation (especially RAmarl's) is already so fast. Is it really worth investing so heavily, and losing so heavily on ATP and ATA that are very important for other weapons / other types of content and gameplay, just to save around two handgun attacks per wave?
  • DP solo episode 4 strats are typically understood to be easy and low focus anyway, and in multiplayer it's typically used in conjunction with other player(s) DP or FO techs. Outside of Time Attack, DP is not some precisely calculated attack method--it's just a "spam until they're dead" kind of thing--so being slightly slower on killing things isn't a big deal or very noticeable.

Other thoughts

• Ideally/Optimally, you could carry two mags and magswap during the quest, but I don't expect most players to want to do this sort of effort (and lose any accumulated PB gauge).
• If there are example quests that are high efficiency to 100% DP through, then the high MIND Striker Unit is more appealing. I can't think of any though--there seems to always be some spawns that are inefficient to purely DP through, but are much easier to purely physically damage through or Demon's -> damage (or maybe DP) cleanup.

MST Breakpoints for Shots-to-Kill Examples

Divine Punishment deals 400 base damage, and gains 1 point of damage per 5 points of MST.

Assuming Ultimate difficulty, One Person mode, attacking a Yowie in Crater, which has 2040 HP and 40 ELT:

• 0 MST: 400 damage before ELT -> 240dmg = 9 shots to kill
• 279 MST: 455 damage before ELT -> 273dmg = 8 shots to kill
• 351 MST: 470 damage before ELT -> 282dmg = 8 shots to kill
• 665 MST: 533 damage before ELT -> 319dmg = 7 shots to kill
• 1031 MST: 606 damage before ELT -> 363dmg = 6 shots to kill

Now, given high MIND investment on Mag + Important Stats Only materials:

• 890 MST: 578 damage before ELT -> 346dmg = 6 shots to kill
  • (Exclusively for maxing DP uses; sacrifices a lot of ATP and ATA, making other weapons far less effective)

Mag Feeding Guides/Examples

While the Estlla Photon Blast from a first evolution Mag by a Ranger can be preferable for use in an Episode 4 boss second phase (cave) strategy, Divine Punishment is already very effective at damaging the crystals evenly, and the feeding tables are more of a pain on the Ranger-evolved first and second mag evolutions. It is also slower to level these evolutions, and more difficult to reach the required stats for DEX > POW > MIND Ila or Kaitabha (M&Y PB), and Garuda--the Heaven Striker Coat mag cell prerequisite.

Regardless, both plans are provided below.

1. Fast and Easy [5/7/34/154] (Leilla, Pilla, Mylla & Youlla)

1. Force feeds Antidote to level 10 = Vritra, Leilla PB, [5/1/4/0]
2. Antidote to level 35 = Ashvinau, Pilla PB, [5/7/23/0]
3. Antiparalysis to level 49 = Ashvinau [5/7/33/3]
4. Hunter (DEX > POW > MIND) feeds final Antiparalysis to level 50 = Ila, Mylla & Youlla PB, [5/7/34/4]
5. Hunter/Force (DEX > POW > MIND) feeds any single item (Difluid is fine) = Garuda, [5/7/34/4]
6. Use Heaven Striker Coat = Striker Unit, [5/7/34/4]
7. Difluids to level 200 = Striker Unit, [5/7/34/154]
8. Sol Atomizers (or Moon Atomizers) to Synchro 120

2. Slow, but with Estlla PB [5/15/16/164] (Estlla, Pilla, Mylla & Youlla)

1. Ranger feeds Monofluid to level 10 = Kalki, Estlla PB, [5/0/0/5]
2. Alternate between Trifluids until just before DEF levels up, followed by MANY Antiparalysis to lower DEF. Repeat to level 35 = Mitra, Pilla PB, [5/0/16/14]
3. Monomates to level 49 - Mitra, [5/14/16/14]
4. Ranger (DEX ≥ POW > MIND) feeds final Monomate to level 50 = Kaitabha, Mylla & Youlla PB, [5/15/16/14]
5. Hunter/Force (DEX > POW > MIND) feeds any single item (Difluid is fine) = Garuda, [5/15/16/14]
6. Use Heaven Striker Coat = Striker Unit, [5/15/16/14]
7. Difluids to level 200 = Striker Unit, [5/15/16/164]

For comparison, we can check the Feeding Cycles, Minutes, and Meseta used between builds:

• Plan 1 total: 291 Feeding Cycles, 1018.5 Minutes, 325,420 Meseta
• Plan 2 total: 413 Feeding Cycles, 1445.5 Minutes, 401,110 Meseta

(Mag plans created with Magatama)

RAmarl Builds and Stat Progression

Important Stats Only Material Plan, Fast and Easy MIND Striker Unit

5/7/34/154 Striker Unit mag.

(Min-Max materials will only be slightly quicker to max MST, with an additional 39 Mind materials = 78 MST. around 10-25 levels in early Ultimate when it is very quick to level up already)

• by level 14, equip HS (no Heavenly/Battle speed) [572 MST]: Plan link
• by level 42, equip HS [695 MST]: Plan link
• by level 80, equip HS [890 MST]: Plan link
• by level 105, equip HS [1031 MST (RAmarl max)]: Plan link
• by level 130, ATA+MST capped (Note that she only has 830 ATP at this point, -315 from her cap--Demon's is still effective at least) [1031 MST (RAmarl max)]: Plan link
• by level 199 with V101, Adept (potentially prohibitively expensive), and 2x Heavenly/Powers she can barely cap ATP while maintaining capped ATA and far overcapped MST (+216 MST overcapped) [1031 MST, capped]: Plan link
  • sorta irrelevant; at this point you should be using something much closer to the current guide-suggested mag stats with more POW and DEX

Important Stats Only Materials Plan, RAmarl min-max Striker Unit

5/149/46/0 mag.

aims to max ATP and ATA early, does not max MST, DFP, or EVP at level 200

• by level 7, equip HS (no Heavenly/Battle speed) [231 MST]: Plan link
• by level 35, equip HS [359 MST]: Plan link
• by level 85, cap ATA (without v101) [557 MST]: Plan link
• by level 139 cap ATP+ATA [756 MST]: Plan link
• by level 194 cap MST, far overcapped ATP (+151 ATP overcapped), -3.1ATA from max with V101, V801, 2 H/Minds, and Red Ring [1031 MST, capped]: Plan link
• by level 200, ATP+ATA capped. requires 2x Heavenly/Minds to cap MST [1031 MST, capped]: Plan link

Max Stat Materials Plan, RAmarl min-max Striker Unit

5/149/46/0 mag, same as ISO.

aims to max ATP+ATA+MST at level 200 with 2 free unit slots and extra mats dumped into Defense

• by level 7, equip HS (no Heavenly/Battle speed) [309 MST]: Plan link
• by level 35, equip HS [437 MST]: Plan link
• by level 85, cap ATA (same as Important Stats Only above) [635 MST]: Plan link
• by level 161, cap MST [1031 MST, capped]: Plan link
• (requires an expensive Adept) by level 167, cap ATP+ATA [922 MST]: Plan link
• by level 187, cap ATP+ATA+MST with V101, V801, Adept, Centurion/Ability, and Red Ring [1031 MST, capped]: Plan link
• by level 200, cap ATP+ATA+MST with only V101, V801, and Red Ring [1031 MST, capped]: Plan link

Credit for this information and guide goes to Thunder